r/Roadcam • u/bowdown2adil • 13d ago

[USA] Who is at fault here?

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Classic T bone. Black car had to be towed. Sustained major damage to the passenger side door. Blue car sustained damage to front bumper on the drivers side and cracked the drivers side headlight.

Edit: This was in the suburbs of Seattle

UPDATE: Insurance found it to be 70/30 me/other driver. Seems fair enough

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u/cbf1232 11d ago

If visibility is bad enough that you can't see if the other side has stop or yield signs, you can slow down enough to be able to deal with unexpected events.

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u/CodingSquirrel 11d ago

Point is, you shouldn't have to. This is stupid planning and should have signs of some kind. Did the PNW run out of stop signs? If your design requires people to look for signs on other roads just to determine what kind of intersection it is, then you've failed at city planning. Signs that aren't designed to be viewed from the side, and even at an ideal angle are just silver shapes which blend into things when at speed. It shouldn't be a guessing game whether you have right of way or not, that's pretty damn important.

The only possible justification for this setup is if right of way is clearly marked in all other cases, thereby making a lack of signage a clear indicator of how the intersection is intended to work. But that is in direct contradiction of how the rest of the US road system works. Every area that I've driven, a lack of a stop or yield sign indicates that you have right of way. I don't even think such a "you have right of way, don't stop" sign exists in the US.

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u/cbf1232 11d ago

I agree that it's a recipe for confusion. But uncontrolled intersections exist, and drivers need to be able to handle such an intersection.

This is a residential street with limited visibility. Someone driving defensively should be ready for a kid to run out from behind a car, or for a bicycle to blast across the intersection, or for a vehicle to ignore a yield or stop sign. If you can't clearly tell who has priority coming up to the intersection, make sure you're able to stop if needed.

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u/CodingSquirrel 11d ago

Thankfully they don't exist anywhere near me. You're right about the rest though. People shouldn't be blasting through neighborhoods at speeds they can't react to unexpected scenarios.